N.Y. Touting Upstate Attractions at Super Bowl

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Jan. 24, 2014, 9:07 PM GMT / Source: Associated Press

ALBANY, N.Y. — In an effort to make Super Bowl fans learn to love upstate New York in the dead of winter, tourism officials are planning a half-dozen parties and displays encouraging that crowd to eat the state's foods, drink its beverages and play in its ice and snow.

While the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks play football Feb. 2 at MetLife Stadium at the New Jersey Meadowlands, the spillover crowd will far exceed the 82,000 holders of high-priced tickets. The NFL championship game is one of the largest sports and entertainment spectacles in the world.

It's expected to draw hundreds of thousands of visitors to nearby New York City and the 13 blocks of Broadway that will be called "Super Bowl Boulevard." Officials with the "I Love NY" campaign plan to erect a quarter-block video park by Wednesday showing statewide attractions, from skiing down mountains in winter to canoeing the backcountry in summer.

The point is getting the mass of midtown visitors to consider New York's "unmatched beauty" while tasting its "world-class products," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said. "The Super Bowl is our opportunity to show off our state."

In the state budget, Cuomo and legislators allocated a $5 million grant for the Super Bowl Host Committee, according to the governor's office.